Bonding with the Princess
by TheForeverGirl20
Summary: Allura feels that she doesn't know the Paladins as well as she should. Her solution? She bonds with each of the paladins
1. Allura from the sidelines

**Hey ya'll, this is the second part of my Voltron series, following Project Runway; Space Edition**

The five Paladins of Voltron enter victoriously to control room of the Castle Lions after a long and hard battle with some Garla footmen. Thought it was only a minor fight to free a moon colony, the team was exhausted. But that wasn't going to stop them from tooting their own horn just a little bit.

Allura, Princess of Altea and one of the two remaining Alteans; the other of course being her trusted advisor and friend, Coran. The Princess looked fondly at her entering Paladins. They walk in tangent together, still in their color coordinated uniforms, recounting the events of their victory.

Shiro, the black paladin and leader, walks over to Keith, the red paladin, and tussles his mullet shaped hair, "Nice job out there with the swordsmanship, Keith." Shiro beams with pride.

Keith swats way Shiro's human hand, "Stop it!" He hissed dismissively, as he smoothing down the hair Shiro displaced.

"Hey," Lance, the blue paladin, yells jealously, "I did good too! Where's my congratulatory pat!"

Shiro laughs as he walks over to Lance, "You too sharpshooter." Shiro gives Lance's short brown curls a tussle as Lance leans up into the touch, like an affectionate kitten.

Shiro then proceeds to Hunk reaching up, "And that was some great defense, Hunk." He ruffles the yellow paladin's hair.

Hunk gives a bashful smile "Aw thanks."

Pidge was obviously trying to sneak away, but Shiro was having none of that. "Come here Pidge!" Shiro said in a tone that wasn't supposed to sound threatening but did anyways.

"Nooo!" Pidge yelled as they weaved through the other paladins to escape Shiro's affections. Pidge begins climbs Hunk like a tree, but has trouble with their footing "Hunk, help!"

Hunk effortlessly lifts Pidge up as if they weighted nothing and plopped them on his shoulders. "There you go." Hunk says.

Shiro attempts to reach up for Pidge, but they smack way his hand, "Ha!" they say in triumph. "Left side of Voltron is the best!"

Hunk parades Pidge around the control room, "Left side! Left side!" matching their enthusiasm as they chant and pump their fists. "Left side! Left side!"

"Oh hell no!" Lance steams, he looks over to Keith. "Yo Red, get on my shoulders!"

"What?" Keith questioned visually confused, "No. I'm too big and you're not strong!"

Lance pouts at Keith's comment, "Ok fine, plan b!" Lance makes a jump for Keith's shoulders, but ends up putting his fellow paladin in a choke hold. Visually Lance is having a hard time balancing himself atop of the struggling red paladin, though that's not stopping him from pressing on, to Keith's dismay. "Right side is the best side!"

"Get off me!" coughed out Keith as he whips Lance around to try and flip him off, both off his back and with his middle finger.

"Right side is the best side!" Lance yells over Keith's protest.

"Stop it!" Keith snarls.

"Come on Keef," Lance wines, "just let me ride you!"

The other three paladins go silent at the blue paladin's word choice, confusing Conan and Allura. Before breaking the silence with a loud burst of laughter from the others.

Both Lance's and Keith's faces turns red at the realization of the meaning, "Wait." Lance shrieks tries to shuffle off of Keith, "I didn't mean it like that!" He tumbles down on to the floor, and brings down Keith with him.

The other paladins laugh even harder at the mishap. A tangle of limbs on the floor, the red and blue Paladin couldn't help themselves but to join in on the laughter they caused.

Allura chuckles to herself as she watches this transpire, before clearing her throat to get their attention. "Well done Paladins," Allura said over the laughter, "You have all shaped up to make a great team."

"Heck yeah!" Lance hollers from the floor, "Kicking Garla butt, anytime, anywhere!"

The other paladins whoop and holler in agreement.

"It's because of all our hard work we've put in." Shiro says.

"Yeah all that team building exercise." Hunk says.

Lance jumps up from the ground, "Dude I have an idea for another one!"

"Continue playing Voltron themed chicken?" Pidge says

"Please no, that was dumb." Keith pipes in.

"Yeah you just say that cause you were losing." Pidge says in a mocking tone.

"Shut up pidge!" says Lance. "What I meant was a sleepover!"

There were confused mummers among the paladins. Allura was familiar with the concept of a 'sleepover', and obviously Lance would be the one to bring it up. The flit that he was.

"Sleepover?!" Coran flustered, his face turning pink, clashing with his bright orange facial hair.

"Yeah! Slumber party in the common room!" Lance continued.

"Dude we're still in our armor." Hunk whined

"Yeah I need like three showers." Says Pidge.

"Same." Keith agrees, sitting up on the floor.

Allura leans into Shiro and whispers "What's the Earth version of 'sleepovers'?"

"You don't have them on Altea?" Shiro quietly replies

"Well, sort of…" Allura drags out uncomfortably.

"It's just something kids would do on Earth with their friends. You would go to their house and.. well sleepover." Shiro replied.

"Except you don't ever sleep!" Lance chimes in

"Cause sleep is for the weak" Pidge follows up.

"I always fall asleep though." Says Hunk.

"Oooh, so it's something you do as friends," Coran says, "You had me going there for a minute, my boy." He directs to Lance, who is bewiled.

Allura rolls her eyes, "So you basically live with your friend for a night? What do you?"

"You play games like 'hide and seek,' 'stiff as a board light as a feather,' 'never have I ever,' or-" Lance puts each arm around Allura and Shiro's shoulder looking between the two beautiful tens. "Truth or dare~" he smirked with a raised eyebrow.

Keith immediately stands up from his position on the ground coughing to cover his jealous tracks. Lance withdraws his arms from either leader in response, a look of concerned and confusion on his face.

"Desperate!" Pidge calls across the room.

"Shut up Pidge," Lance and Keith yell unison.

Shiro puts his hands up, "Alright team, we're all tried from today's fight. Let's just rest up and have a sleepover some other time." Shiro looks over to Lance, "Is that okay?"

Lance crosses his arm with a huff, "I guess," he pouts.

Shiro turns to face Allura, "Is there anything else we need to discuss?" he asks.

Allura blinks focusing her attention on the mission, "Uh, no." She stutters, "That will be all."

Shiro turns back around looking to all the other Paladins, "Alright then, good job team, let's get some rest." He said in a commending yet caring voice.

Lance's arm shoots up, "Dibs on first shower!"

"No, you're going to in there forever!" Hunk whined.

"Yeah and you use all the hot water." Keith said.

Lance scoffed, "Well you shouldn't use hot water on your dumb mullet any ways, it causes damage!"

Keith scowled, "Hey Lance." As soon as he had the other boy's attention, Keith raised his knife to his own hair in a threating manner.

Lance's eyes widened, "Never mind, Keith can have it first," his voice wavered.

Keith triumphantly twirled his knife back into it's holster, "That's what I thought."

"What!" screams Pidge, "What the hell just happened? How is that fair?"

Unbenounced to the smallest paladin, Shiro had sneakily made his way behind them for a two- handed double hair tussle with extra love and support on the side, "Got ya!"

Pidge covered their head in protest, "Noooooo," but it was too late, "Gross, I'm using the shower first!" They ran ahead of everyone else and out the doors.

"What? No fair, I called dibs!" Lance screamed after them.

Followed by Keith, "Lance, I swear to Voltron I will shave my entire head!"

Then Hunk heading the cabooses, "I don't get it, there are ten other showers on this ship."

Shiro stayed behind watching the younger paladins exist the room, he looked back to Allura. "Are you sure there's nothing else?"

The Princess shakes her head, "No, go and rest up. You've earned it." She gives the head of Voltron an encouraging smile.

Shiro nods "Ok," He turns to leave, "Great job today, you two," he calls back as he exists the room leaving Allura and Coran alone.

Coran chuckles to himself, "What a strange brunch those humans are, eh what?"

Allura blanked out on Coran's statement, she was to into deep thought. It had been at least 50 Quintents since she was a waken by the new paladins of Voltron to face the same war she was fighting Decapheebs ago. The old paladins took years of training to bond well enough to form Voltron, but this batch under pressure of spontaneous Garla attack, formed in just few quintents. Their bond to each other was that strong.

She had also notices that all the paladins use one another to help each other cope, with the after match of battle. Shiro, ever the leader, was full of support and wise words. Hunk, the 'cinnamon roll' as Lance and Pidge called him, offered up hugs and food. And Lance, as much as his constant flirting annoyed her, Allura found his jokes were good for keeping up moral. While Pidge was a certified tech genius who could hack anything. And Keith…? Well he was a good fighter, Allura would give him that.

And yet, Allura feels like something was missing, she felt like _she_ was missing. She not a part of the team.

"Princess, did you hear me?" Coran says.

"What?" Allura snaps back to reality, "Yes, humans, odd."

Coran comes forward and places a hand on Allura's shoulder, "I think you should rest up as well, Princess."

She nods, "Yes, I probably should." But she hesitates, stand in place, feet stuck to the ground.

Coran leaned in closer, "Is something the matter, Princess." He said with concern.

Allura hesitated again, she didn't want to worry Coran, he had always been like a second father to her. So naturally she had to choose her words carefully.

"It's just that.., Hmm." She starts, she thinks of how her Father would handle this, any of this. "Coran?"

"Yes?"

"Did my Father bond well with the Paladins?"

"What do you mean?"

She sighs, "Never mind, it's nothing." She shrugs of his hand and starts walking forward.

Coran follows after her, "Princess, your father wouldn't want you to put so much pressure on yourself." He smiles down on her, "He'd be proud of you. I know."

"Thank you, Coran," She knows Coran is being sincere, but she could find it herself to believe him. "I'll be in my room." She makes her way to the doors, the four small mice in hot pursuit.

"Goodnight, Princess." Coran calls after her.

"Goodnight." She isn't sure if he heard her or not, because she had already left the control room.

She walked down the corridors of the castle to her bedchamber, still thinking of her placement on the team. Was she a good leader, would she even be considered a leader? She was a Princess, but of what? Her planet was gone.

She entered her room, the space mice follow suit. Her room was slightly bigger then the paladins', big enough for a Princess. Allura fell backwards on to her bed with a defeated sigh as the mice scurry up the sheets to join her.

Allura thinks back to how the paladins interacted with each other, so familiar and personal. They had all been friends before they met her and became paladins in this war. At least that's what she assumed, Allura never really asked about their lives back on their home planet.

She looks up to her celling as she addressed the four mice, "I just wish I knew the paladins better."

The mice do a little dance in the hopes to get the Princess' attention, even pulling on her hair that was still in a bun.

"What's that?" she sat up and looks down to them as they continue to dance. "You have some new gossip what the paladins?" Allura beamed, she loved to gossip with the nice.

Plachu, the blue mouse jumps up onto the back of Chuchule, the pink mouse. The two mice fall dramatically and awkwardly hold hands, they resembled a certain pair of paladins.

Allura chuckles at the display, "Well that does sound like them-"She stops herself, her expression turns serious, "No," She realizes, "this is not the way to get to know the others." She scoops up the space mice and places them on her shoulder. "I must do it directly, just like my father would."

She triumphantly stands from her bed ready to put her plan into fruition, as the mice cheer her on. Now on her two feet, her legs, weary from the battle, shake and give out. "Tomorrow," she says returning to her seated position on the bed, "I'll start tomorrow."

She lays back down thinking of her battle strategy, before falling asleep.


	2. Pidge

The next day Allura decided to put her plan into action, though she didn't know how to go about it. She walks through the castle thinking of ways to connect with the human paladins. Perhaps she could call them in for a training exercise, but how was she supposed to bond with them if they're all fighting gladiators. Maybe she could use the mind melding headsets, though those do tend to get bit too personal. She could always go with Lance's plan and have a 'sleepover', the Earth version of course.

Still In deep thought, Allura passes one of the lions' hangers, when she hears something from within, causing her to stop in her tracks.

"Son of a bit-" ZAP, "Ahhh!"

Allura peeks around the entryway to see none other than the Green Paladin, Pidge. They're muttering to themselves as they walk around the Green Lion with a long cord connected to their laptop. Their glasses askew and hair sticking up in different directions and singed at the ends.

This was it, now was Allura's chance to strike. Instead of bonding with the Paladins all together, she could as just easily bond with them one on one. Getting to know them on a personal level, without digging into their brains and memories. And she would start with Pidge, she already had started to bond with them before Sendak attack the castle on Arus. Hopefully this will go better than then.

Allura silently struts into the hanger, grinning from pointed ear to pointed ear at her plan. She comes up behind the tech distracted human, and cocks her head in confusion at computer screen in front of them.

She leans down to take a closer look, "What are you doing?"

Pidge jumps up startled nearing dropping their computer at the sudden appearance of the princess, "Ahh!" they immediately shut the laptop close. "Princess!"

Allura stand up straight, "Oh, I'm sorry Pidge I didn't mean to frighten you." She hadn't been here for a minute and her plan was already failing. "I was just curious to what you were doing."

Pidge takes a breath, "It's fine," they says, "I'm looking for a usb port"

Allura cocks her head again, "Are you trying to connect your device to our lion?"

The small paladin lets out a chuckle, "Yeah, silly of me to think that thousands year old lion mech would be compatible with my PC." They turn back to face The Green Lion, "Sorry, girl," they address the metal feline, who responds with a low apologetic hum. "Maybe if I had an apple…" They mumble to themselves reopening their laptop.

"An apple?" Allura asked, "isn't that an Earth fruit?"

"I mean yeah, but it's also a type of commuter." Pidge said putting down their computer.

"I wasn't aware that Earth fruit could double as technology" Allura said astonished.

Pidge sat back down at their computer, "Well no, it's just a name."

"Oh, I see."

To was silent for a moment between the Princess and The Green Paladin, Allura stood over Pidge as they continued typing out code on their computer. Allura failed to sustain a regal stance and began to teeter on either foot as her eyes wondered around the hanger. She was struggling to come up with a conversation topic, the two of them didn't share any hobbies or character traits.

Pidge, noticing Allura zoning out behind them, sighed, "Not to sound rude or anything" piped up not looking up from their screen, "but what are you doing here?"

"Ah, yes! I wanted to have some girl bonding time with you!" Allura says, that would be a good cover for some bonding. Besides she wanted this before when the space mice told her Pidge's secret, though now she has realized that was an invasion of privacy.

Pidge grits their teeth and sucks air in "Oh well, that's going to be hard."

Allura is taken aback, "Why's that?"

"I'm not a girl."

Allura pauses, "Didn't you confess you were a girl?"

"I mean yeah, sort of…"

"So you really are a boy?"

"Well-uh-no."

"Oh I see," she says "Humans are capable of having more than one gender. I have meet multiple species like this, some that can have up to different five hundred genders." Allura states proudly at her knowledge of different alien races.

"Cool, but that's not me either."

"I don't understand, do you not have a Gender?"

"Bingo!" Pidge puts a finger to their noise, "I already came out to the guys, guess I forgot to tell you and Coran."

Allura would have felt hurt that she didn't receive such intimate info with the others, if she weren't so curious about Humans and their gender expression. "Interesting, I didn't know Earthlings could be genderless."

Pidge pushes up their glasses, "Yeah well here I am."

"So what are you called?"

"What?"

"Is there a name for you and other genderless beings."

"Well, on Earth there are a few names for it, but I use Nonbinary and use they/them pronouns."

"Plural terms used as singular, fascinating. Are there many like you back on Earth."

"Sure, but we're but not that well known." Pidge coughed "I only figured it out a while ago."

"On Altea, there were only two recognized genders, I'm sorry I assumed you were a girl." Allura was going to have a talk with her mice about assuming gender when she was done here.

"That's okay, it happens a lot."

Allura smiled, it was working, slowly but surely. She was getting to know one of the paladins, she couldn't stop know. "I'd love to hear more about Earth and your customs."

Pidge blinks widely, "Well I'd show you but there's shitty wifi in space."

"Weefee?"

Pidge snorts at her pronunciation, "Yeah it helps with my computer. That's why I've been trying to find another source to use." They pull up their laptop and open an app, "You wouldn't happen to know of any Best Buys in space?"

"Is 'Best Buy' an Earth store?"

"Yeah that's what I thought." They sigh as they close out of the app.

"What do you do on your computer?"

"Everything." They start typing, "But mostly memeing."

"What's memeing? Is that another Earth store?" Allura takes a moment to reflect, "Are 'memes' the same as when we 'roasted' Lance?"

"Close," Pidge's face lit up, "Oh boy, I need to educate you on memes!" After a few clicks on the keyboard, they pulled up a file on their desktop labeled 'Supreme Meme.'

Matched Pidge's enthusiasm "Was 'memes' all that you did on your computer?"

"Not necessarily" They scan through dozen of pictures of humans and cartoon characters with word text, "Before we left earth I also scanned radio waves at night to try and find my-" Pidge stopped themselves. "My dad and brother…"

"Oh."

Pidge had mentioned their family before, Allura knew how desperate Pidge is when it came to finding their family. They even came close to leaving the team to find them, without an inkling to their location. Their brother and father were out there somewhere in space under the Garla's boot, and Pidge wanted them back. Allura could relate…

The short human looks down at the keyboard, "And I was thinking that if I got my computer up and running again that I could start scanning again." Pidge says in such a low tone of voice, Allura almost couldn't hear them.

"I'm sorry we haven't find them."

"It's okay." Pidge sighs, "It's a big universe."

Allura crouches down to their level, "What are they like?"

"What?" Pidge snaps out of it, wiping a tear from their eye.

"Your Father and brother?" Allura puts a hand on Pidge's shoulder, imitating the affection she'd seen Shiro give them hundreds of times.

"They are both extremely smart, the two smartest people I know," Pidge smirks.

It was good to see Pidge happy again, "Sounds like it runs in the family."

"Yeah that's why they were picked for the Kerberos with Shiro."

"Shiro?"

"Shiro went on the mission with my dad and brother. Which only makes sense because he's the best Pilot the Earth had to offer." Pidge beams with their words.

"Is that so?" This was going splendid, now she was learning about the other Paladins as well.

"Sure, I heard it every day from Matt after training." Their smirked chances into a devilish smile at the thought, Allura sensed that there was more that Pidge wasn't telling her. But she decides to let it go, maybe she would ask Shiro later.

"Oh, wait," Pidge turns to their bag and digs around until they pull out a photograph, "Here," they hand it to Allura. "That's me and my brother, Matt."

Pidge didn't need to point him out, the resemblance was remarkable. Allura looks down at the photo then back up to Pidge, "You look so much alike."

Pidge shrugs, "We get that a lot."

"I love your outfit in this picture."

"Yeah, it's an okay dress. Nothing like yours though."

"Thank you. Your hair looks nice too."

"Thanks, maybe I'll grow it out." They say running a hand through their tangled mop. "My hair hasn't been this short since Matt accidently burned it off when I was five."

Allura's jaw drops, "Oh my, I don't have siblings but is that an Earth thing?"

"Nah, Matt just built a homemade blowtorch" They wave it off, "I was fine, mom was pissed though-" Pidge stopped themselves again they're facing turning pale.

"What's the matter?"

Their eyes begin to tear up, "I forgot about my mom…" Pidge practically choking up. "She's all alone back on Earth. God," Pidge pulls their hair back. "She must think we're all dead!"

 _Oh, no._ Allura thinks, and it was going so well before. Quiznak, why were their so many pitfalls with humans? She could turn this around, she could make this better. All she need to do was comfort the Nonbinary human. She hesitantly wraps an arm around Pidge, causing them to fall into her plush white hair.

Pidge's quite sobs stop for only a moment before wrapping their arms completely around Allura, hair and all. This is better, Allura pulls Pidge into a tighter hug, and places a hand on top of their head. She noticed the slightly rougher texture of human hair, as her fingers slipped up and down Pidge's head. Allura would be lying if she said she wasn't comfortable with the situation, she never cared to take of children, crying or not. But this was different, this was Pidge, who wasn't a child as far as Allura knew, they are a Paladin of Voltron, strong and dependable. And yet they wept.

Allura kept stroking Pidge's, so tenderly it reminded her of how her father would comfort her hair when she had questions about her mother. A spark goes off in Allura's brain, "I never knew my mother," she says trying to relate to their pain, "She died when I was young, but my father would ways try so hard to be both parents." The memory of it brings tears to Allura's eyes, "And he was always making the silliest jokes to cheer me up."

Pidge shifts, "My dad makes dumb puns," They say muffled by Allura's hair, "it drives mom crazy."

Allura continued to hold and brush Pidge's head, as they exchanged embarrassing family stories. Mr. Holts obsession with the different types of Earth vegetation, especially peas. Or how Allura once as a child ignored her father for a Quintent, because she was mad at him for some childish reason. Allura had been wrong before when she thought she and Pidge had nothing in common, they had a love for their families and friends. It had nearly been a varga sense the two had started talking, and neither had broken away from their platonic hug.

The Princess could feel her arms going numb, and she wondered if Pidge's arm falling asleep wrapped around her. Just as if Pidge had read her mind, they pull away from Allura's embrace.

"Oh God, I can't believe I just started crying, how dumb." They say giving their arms a stretch followed by a pop.

"It's not dumb." Allura looks Pidge softly in the eyes, "if you ever want to talk I'm here for you. We don't have to call it girl bonding time, we could find a more suitable name."

Pidge wipes both eyes with their jacket sleeve, "Yeah," they sniffle out. They look up to Allura, eyes still red and just a bit puffy. "Thanks, Allura."

Allura softly smiles, "Of course,"

 _One down, four to go._ Allura thinks, giving herself a mental pat on the back.

"And you know," She continued, "you can always use the castle's computer to amply your computer, without the use of weefee."

"Holy crap, really?" They look up to the Green Lion as if they were communicating together, "I was going to ask but I didn't want to be rude," they whisper to the large mechanical cat, perhaps arguing with what she had said.

Allura chuckles at the Lion and her Paladin, "Nonsense, you are a Paladin, the castle and all its amenities are yours."

Pidge smiles with a large toothy grin "Awesome! Thanks again Allura."

"It's no trouble," She says so sure of herself, "we are a team and we must help one another."

"I agree. Now-" They pulls up their laptop, still open to the odd pictures. "let me educate you on memes."

 **I'm trying really hard to keep the crew in character for all my fics, sorry if things get a litlle too OC-y. I had a fun time writing this chapter, hope all five of you like it.**

 **Next up its everyone's favorite cinnamon roll, to good to pure for this world, Hunk.**


	3. Hunk

**Sorry this took a little longer. I'll be honest i was scared of writing this chapter because I felt that I didn't know Hunk's character well enough. But here it is. Sorry in advance**

A few days after her time with Pidge, Allura is back at it again with the bonding moments, looking for paladins to bond with. It was rather easy to talk to humans once you gained their trust, Allura had noted. Now she just needed to find another Paladin.

She really didn't have a set plan, after all she basically stumbled across Pidge in their hanger. But she had one down and four to go. So she decide that random happenstance was her best bet.

While on the hunt for Paladins, Allura passes the observatory deck and finds two figures sitting beneath a room full of holographic stars. She made the two out to be Lance and Keith hanging out.

 _Perfect_ , Allura thought to herself, _Two Paladins, one stone._

Stepping one foot into the large room, Allura suddenly felt as if she was trespassing. Perhaps the two were having their own bonding moment. Allura had notice that they were around each other more often after the whole switching incident. Who was she to cut in the middle of this?

The red and blue Paladin never caught wind of the Princess presence, too busy with the others company. So it was easy for her to leave the same way she entered.

Well, Lance and Keith were out of commission for now. Allura would just have to bond with them another time. Individually of course.

Still in deep thought, Allura passes the kitchen, she doubles back when she spots a large human shape lump on the other side of the room.

Hunk.

Well of course it was Hunk, why didn't she come to the kitchen sooner. He should have been the easiest Paladin to find, he was always in here cooking something up.

"Hello, Hunk." Allura said now fully entering the room. She made it appoint to announce her presents after her experience with Pidge.

The yellow Paladin's head springs up, to reveal his goggled covered face. "Oh, hello Princess."

That's odd eyewear for cooking, but Allura wasn't going to question how Earthlings prepare food too much.

"What are you cooking?" Allura curiously moved in closer to see.

"Uh," Hunk lifts the goggles off his face and on to his head to show a look of confusion on the rest of his face. "I'm not cooking anything."

Allura is slightly taken aback, "Oh." Hunk plus kitchen usually equals food, that was just basic math. Allura clears her throat, "Then what _are_ you doing?"

"Well, I'm using parts from this space toaster to make a router box for Pidge." He says while tying two wires together, one white the other black.

Contraption was for Pidge? Then perhaps it has to do with their conversation a few days ago. "Is this for the weefee?"

"Yeah?" He looks way from the box up at her, "How do you know about that?"

"Oh, Pidge and I were talking about it the other day." Allura states proud of her connection to Pidge, "They we're also teaching me some more Earth 'memes'"

"Memes huh, that's cool." Hunk says attention split between the Princess and the box, "I'm more of a pun man, myself."

"Pun?"

"It's a type of joke."

Allura smiles wide, and scoots closer to Hunk, anticipating an example

"Oh!" Hunk notices Allura's excitement, "well, let me see." He puts down his work, "Hold on let me think, its hard to come up with something off the top of your head." He strokes his hairless chin as he thinks. Then, as if a lightbulb went off over his, he snaps his fingers in realization. "I _butter_ think of a pun!"

Disappointed wasn't the right word to describe how Allura feels apart the so-called joke, but is sure looked like it on her face. Allura gave a pity laugh, "Butter!" she exclaims, "It's good!" with a fake smile.

"You have no idea what butter is, do you?"

Her shoulders slump in defeated, "Not a clue."

"Nah, it's okay. Some jokes aren't universal, literally."

"Oh, universal! I got that one!"

"See, I'm getting butter- I-I mean better." Hunk stumbles over his words

"What is butter?"

"Eh, it's a type of Earth food."

"Oooh food! I get it very good food joke, Hunk"

Hunk's smile faded, "Food," he looks back down to his work, "Yeah that's me," he mumbled, "Hunk the funny food guy…"

Allura leaned in closer, "What did you say?" she asked concerned.

Hunk's head snapped up, "What? O-oh nothing. Just a dumb thing." His face was notably pinker form embarrassment.

Allura covers a soft chuckle with her hand, Hunk had always seemed like the sweetest Paladin. Never the type to cause too much trouble, but to help clean up the mess of the others. He reminds her of a thing Pidge had said the other day. "You truly are a cinnamon roll," Allura said with sweet delight.

Hunk goes rigged at the phrase, "Did uh- Pidge teach you that one too?"

"Yes," she brings her hands together with an audible clap, "And I think it describes you perfectly!"

Hunk doesn't look at the princess, he just stares blankly down at his work. "Haha. It's funny…"

Allura's joy is replaced with concern, "Are you sure nothing's wrong?"

"Its just-" He lets out a frustrated sigh, "I love food, don't get me wrong. I cooking it, eating it, anything regarding the stuff. But-" He pauses.

"Yes?"

"There's more to me then food."

"Oh."

"I mean, I know the others just see me as the 'Funny Food Guy,' and that's funny sometimes, just not all the time you know?"

Guilt ran through the Altean Princess, she admits to herself that's how she viewed Hunk. When she was around him he would be eating food, or cooking food or talking about food. However, looking back on it Allura never really talked to Hunk outside training and fighting. But this is why she was doing this, to get to know her Paladins better, first hand.

She took a few steps closer to examine his work further, and from leaning down she can see the integral weaves of wiring with in the devise. Allura notice it was different from Pidge's; they work consisted of the inner workings of technology, the code and numbers. While Hunk worked on the physical aspect of tech, the nuts, bolts and wires. Allura had come to learn that they were two very important sides of the same coin, and both had helped win numeral battles against the Garla.

Allura stood up straight, looking back up to the Paladin. "Hunk, I'm sorry…"

"What for?"

"For not seeing more of your potential," she says with all the empathy she can muster, "You are an important part of this team, and should be seen as such."

Hunks blushes a little pinker, "Oh- wow- I mean- thanks, but-"

"You are the emotional center of the team."

"Emotional center? I don't know about that." Hunk scratches the back of his neck," I just have some anxiety"

"Over what?"

"Everything…"

"Well then you are very strong," Allura says, "Not just in the physical sense, but emotional as well."

"Really?"

She raises a hesitant hand of comfort, "Of course." Her hand finally finds its place on Hunk's broad shoulders "You pilot the Yellow Lion, a leg of Voltron and the symbol of strength for the team. You must be to hold up the entire team."

Bashfully, Hunk touches his forefingers' tips together, "I mean Lance helps," he says quietly, "He's a leg too."

"Not to mention your diplomatic skills," Allura recalls, "You helped the Balmera and it's people. And you were right about Rolo and his crew, you have great intuition when it comes to people. Oh, and-"

The Princess' words were cut off by the force of big strong arms pulling her into a warm embrace.

"Ok, ok," Hunk says above her, "I get it!" Allura swears she hears the boy sniffle, "Thank you!" Princesses."

Allura angles her head up and out of the human's chest, "Hunk, are you crying?" She huffs out still lock in his hug.

The Yellow Paladin whimpers, "Yes!" Allura sees him wipe a falling tear with his shoulder, "I get emotional when people compliment me!"

Allura tries to comfort the big lug, but her arms are pinned to her side, she settles for patting him with her head. Soon Hunk realizes his mistake and loosens his grip on Allura. Now free to move her arms, Allura brings her arms up and around Hunk.

Leaning into Hunk's chest, Allura was bombarded by nostalgic memories of when she was young and another's strong arms welcomed her in such an embrace. Her father, King Alfor. Thousands of years ago before she was frozen and few years before that, back when she was a child did she remember crying into her father's arms about some childish squabble.

Tears began to form in her eyes as her breath became shallow. Her arms wrapped tighter around Hunk's form and she nuzzles deeper into his chest. It was as if she was trying to chase after the fading memory and feeling of her father…

"Allura?" Hunk's voice snapping her out of her head space. "Are you crying?"

She pulls away from him only a bit, and sniffs, "I believe so." She takes a finger and gracefully wipes a tear forming in her eye. "It's just that," She take a breath to calm herself, "I haven't been hugged like that in years."

Hunk pulls away from her completely, but has his arms still on her shoulders keeping her at armlengths. His stoic face looks down at her, "Hugs are magic, Princess." He said with all seriousness.

Allura chuckles at the comment, "I'm glad I talked to Hunk." She admits, "Usually I get information from my mice."

"Your mice?"

 _Oh no_ , she hadn't meant to disclose that info. "Yes," she comes clean, "I'm not very proud of it but, I gossip with them."

Hunk's eyes widen with delight, as his mouth curls into a smile "You know," he whispers before looking around to check for extra ears. "I've read Pidges diary before…"

Allura, full of intrigue leans in closer to the Yellow Paladin, "Diary, you say?"

To think Allura just moments ago didn't know much of her Yellow Paladin, only as some form of comic relief, that eats all the time. But now she saw him for the smart and strong Paladin he was. And here they are now bonding over their shared love of 'Tea,' as Pidge would put it.

She could already tell that she and Hunk have bonded well, and they would continue to bond over more 'Tea' sections in the future.

 **Yeeeeaaah, this is a short one sorry yall. I hate that I can't write Hunk well enough. That boy deserves better.**

 **Next up everyone's favorite emo, Keith.**


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